First ice gills – and my first ticket!

Hit the ice bright and early on a local lake for some gills with a friend. Fishing was good. Boy was I surprised to find ‘ol Johnny Law waiting at my truck when I came off the ice. As it turns out – we crossed a piece of non-posted private land – the last 50 ft of trail before hitting the water – while accessing the lake. The chicken-s$$t landowner did not have the balls to confront or warn us, he just called the sheriff. The sheriff wrote us tickets for “operating an ATV on private land w.o consent”.

The area that we parked is well used as a parking spot along a county road and there is a well-used trail down to the water. As it turns out – the sheriff informed us that the landowner recently recieved a ticket for operating an ATV on a public road – and now is making sure that anybody that operates one on this trail is ticketed . The trail that crossed his land IS MARKED with trail markers!!!! I have fished this spot many, many times and have seen dozens of sleds and ATV’s access the water here. I was told that history makes no difference. No warnings – just tickets.

So this is a warning to all – MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHO OWNS THE LAND THAT YOU ARE CROSSING – in WI, it does not need to be posted. In over 30 years of chasing fish and game – this is my first ticket – welcome to the club!

I am curious to see what the cash amount when the ticket gets mailed to me .

Merry Christmas! Tim

I feel your pain Timmy.

Because it’s next to a lake and a trail, I’m wondering if the judge would toss out the ticket if you had photos of the area. It’s hard to know what’s private and public, it might be a defense(?) You know the area, I don’t. With your record, pleading guilty with an explaination MIGHT help your cause.

I did have to chuckle a bit. Remember the post the other day about someone leaving their tip up on the lake with the owners phone number on it??

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The chicken-s$$t landowner did not have the balls to confront or warn us, he just called the sheriff.

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Many people would have called the tip line…I was a bit surprised at the number. Even if he didn’t have an axe to grind, many people would just call the sherriff it appears.

I would think that he would put up private proporty signs if it bothered him that much.

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The trail that crossed his land IS MARKED with trail markers!!!! I have fished this spot many, many times and have seen dozens of sleds and ATV’s access the water here. I was told that history makes no difference. No warnings – just tickets.

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Tim

Who posted those trail markers? Snowmobile club, sportsmans club, etc? If you can find out, you may have a defense, as there is the possibility that this trail
has a peice of paper covering it – allowing public access as long as they stay in the boundry of the trail.

Just a thought….

UG

Thanks for the replies, guys. The signs are not marking a “public use” trail – they were placed by a private party for private use.

My defense will be photo’s plus an explanation if the ticket is worth fighting – I don’t want to take a day off if it is a small fine. When he was writing the tickets out, the sheriff explained the situation and said he felt bad about it – and he told both of us that he encouraged us to go to court over the tickets. So hopefully it will work out. I do not need a healthy fine to pay – as I would rather spend the $$ on something useful – like anything else!

Tim

Timmy,
That really bites.

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the sheriff explained the situation and said he felt bad about it

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He obviously didn’t feel bad enough about it to write you a warning instead of a ticket. I wouldn’t be surprised if when you get the ticket it is pushing 200 beans. It doesn’t seem like there are any tickets in Wi that are less than 150 bucks anymore.

I got a speeding ticket in Wi. (from a St. Croix Cty Sherrif) last Christmas at 2am (actually 12/26) when driving home from the cabin after getting the an unexpected phone call from my wife saying she went into labor 4 weeks early. Its a little over an hour drive from the cabin to home and I couldn’t help myself from speeding (69mph in a 55mph zone). I explained why I was speeding and he thinks he did me a favor by saying he would mail me the ticket and let me get on my way again. He was true on his word, I got the ticket for 180.00. Our baby girl was born on 12/26. I tried to do the court thing, but that was an excercise in futility. You have to first plead not guilty (in writing). Then they schedule a meeting with the assistant DA. I made that meeting and they offered to reduce it to a 3 point ticket. I explained to the assistant DA why I was speeding and she remarked ‘we hear all kinds of good stories’. I declined to take their reduced offer and scheduled a court date. I screwed up the date on my calander and missed the court date by a day. I got to pay the ticket and I got to miss some work.

What county did this happen in? I sure wish you the best. Keep us posted on how it turns out.

I don’t know if this is worth fighting. The simple fact is you drove an ATV across private property. Whether you knew it was private or not does not matter.
I would just pay the fine and chalk it up to experience.

By the way, a good way to avoid this problem in the future is to pick up a plat book from your local gov. center. It lists all lands and who owns them. The book for my county costs about $25. Well worth the price in my opinion.

Bzzsaw – happened in St Croix Cty. The sheriff told me flat out that if we would not have packed up our gear and left when we did, we would have recieved verbal warning. But with incredible luck, we packed up and left the lake as the sheriff was taking the complaint. The landowner and him watched us leave the lake – and the landowner wanted us ticketed.

I do have a platbook and am VERY conscious of not trespassing. The past history of this locale indicated to me that this was a viable, legal way to access the lake. I have personally witnessed DOZENS of ATV’s, snowmobiles, and trucks access from this same trail. In fact – this year there are trail marker signs (the same orange diamonds the state marks trails with) at this spot – which any reasonable person would assume indicates the proper access point. The fact that the sheriff pointed out that the landowner recieved a ticket for illegal ATV operation and now has an axe to grind, and added that he thinks we should take it to court shows me that it was not just a simple trespass case. Wrong place, wrong time, I guess. My game plan is to go to court with photo’s and tell the truth. Then I will accept the consequences. It kind of ticks me off, though.

Tim

Timmy – How far from the road was the lake? There is a law/rule out there that gives you the right to access a lake from a road. I am guessing, but it is something like if the lake is 500′ from the centerline. Landowners don’t own the water, they just own the “land” around the water. Was the trail through cattails and marsh, or was it a field or something. Frozen over cattails should still be considered the lake. You may want to do some investigating. Sometimes land owners think they own more than they do, also sheriffs are not surveyors and don’t always know the correct boundaries to interpret.

The ticket probably will be around $150. I don’t think you can get by for any less these days unless maybe j-walking.